DEATH ON 128TH STREET: THE VICTIMS

DEATH ON 128TH STREET: THE VICTIMS;Bad Luck and Horror for 7 in an Store

By JOE SEXTON

Published: December 9, 1995

Luz Ramos was torn. The 20-year-old from the Bronx always wanted to have a job. But she also felt the pull to be with her two young sons -- the older boy of 3 and his younger brother of only 9 months.

"You don't get a job, and it's bad," said Jose Ramos, the woman's brother. "You get a job, and it's bad."

Ms. Ramos had been working for just a few months, but the need to be with her boys was so great that she decided this would be her final week at Freddie's Fashion Mart on 125th Street in Harlem. She spent Thursday night watching videos with her best friend, Carlotta Herring, joking and at ease with her decision.

"We were talking about life," Ms. Herring said.

For Ms. Ramos, though, the last day of work did not make it past morning, and it became the last day of her life.

Shortly after 10 A.M. yesterday, the police said, Ms. Ramos was one of seven people -- men and women, a Guyanese immigrant as well as the 19-year-old daughter of a Puerto Rican minister -- who died when a gunman barged into Freddie's, opened fire again and again, then set the store ablaze.

For hours, as investigators went to work and 125th Street reverberated with talk of feuds and sorrow, the remains of the victims -- five women and two men, only one of them older than 23 -- stayed in the incinerated black remains of Freddie's, lying with the body of the gunman.

Together, they represented a slice of the struggles and the striving that went on every day in the store and in the neighborhood.

Kareem Brunner, a 23-year-old security guard who lived with his mother, was taken out into the cold and off to the morgue. So, too, was Garnette Ramantar, a 43-year-old father of four from Guyana who had worked as a manager for years at Freddie's and other stores.

Mostly, though, the dead were young women like Ms. Ramos. Angeline Marrero was the daughter of a Pentecostal minister who had gone back to Puerto Rico with her family only to return 18 months ago so that her father could get better dialysis treatment. And there was Cynthia Martinez, a 19-year-old who had told friends she would meet them at a party last night. They would dance until the morning, she had told them.

The final list of the dead also included Olga Garcia, 19, and Mayra Rentas, 22. Other workers were injured, including the store manager, who was shot in the chest, and at least one carpenter from Ireland who was working on a construction project at the store.

Yesterday, with word of the deadly assault spreading across the city, the relatives and friends of the victims came to face the news in different ways, at different speeds. Silvana Ramantar, who had said goodbye to her husband in the morning, came from Jackson Heights, Queens, and found his car parked on 123d Street. He had made it to work. His wife's dread was racing.

Others went directly to the 28th Precinct in Harlem, and outside it, screams of heartbreak could be heard. Carloads of the relatives and friends then went to the city's Medical Examiner's office. They waited and hoped and denied. The mother of Ms. Martinez was shown a picture of her daughter and refused to identify it. It did no good in the end.

Julissa Colon, who described herself as Ms. Martinez's best friend, said they had grown up together on University Avenue in the Bronx and had gone to Taft High School. Another friend said Ms. Martinez had given part of her earnings -- several of the female employees made less than $5 an hour -- to her 41-year-old mother who was on public assistance.

The daily scene at Freddie's, according to a number of its workers, was up until recently relaxed and gregarious. The wages were not great, but the managers were good about allowing the women to take off when they had to. The workers, who always participated in a secret Santa exchange of gifts, were shopping for each other anonymously.

While there had been complaints in the neighborhood that Freddie's did not employ enough black workers, there was a racial and ethnic mix among the women who worked the floor. The customers were varied as well.

It was "a real melting pot," said one woman who worked as a cashier, but who asked that she not be identified.

But those who worked at the store were not unaware of the furor over rents and leases and the relationship with a nearby record store that had come to embroil Freddie's. They had walked to work through the people outside urging a boycott. They had worried together about the chance that they might be harassed or hurt outside the store.

A friend of Ms. Marrero's said she had returned to the Bronx apartment building they shared Thursday night talking about how one or more persons had entered the store and threatened that something bad was going to happen.

"But she was calm," Edison Hernandez, the friend, said. "They had threatened the store. But she didn't worry about it."

Illya Brunner, the sister of Kareem, the 23-year-old security guard, said her brother had warned her to stay away. And Ms. Herring, who had just started working at Freddie's, said a man who was a member of the picketers outside the store had spoken to her recently.

"He said, 'If they don't sit down and get things together something is going to happen,' " said Ms. Herring. "He said, 'If it happens, I'll make sure you are not in there because I like you.' "

The workers were found on both floors of the store, all dead from smoke inhalation.

Oscar Marrero, Ms. Marrero's father, was described as "broken."

"She was his only daughter," saidan upstairs neighbor of the family.

In Jackson Heights, the sons, daughters and mother of Mr. Ramantar waited by the telephone, got the call saying that he was killed, and wept. Mr. Ramantar had four children, the youngest only 7 months.

"He was a father, a son," said a sister-in-law. "What else did he have to be?"

The girlfriends of Ms. Martinez, several of whom worked with her, gathered at the medical examiner's office. They talked about how their friend had enjoyed dancing and salsa and jewelry.

"Cynthia was down-to-earth," said Tasha Havens, holding back tears. "I don't understand what the purpose of this was."

Ms. Brunner had yet to receive final notification early last evening as she stood in Bellevue Hospital Center.

"He was very motivated," she said of her brother. "He rarely missed a day. I'm just hoping today is one of the days he missed." But Mr. Brunner had make it to work after all.

List of Victims

In addition to the man whom the police identified as the gunman, the following victims were identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner:

Photo: After the eight deaths at Freddie's Fashion Mart in Harlemyesterday, people came to the City Medical Examiner's office at First Avenue and 30th Street to identify the dead. (Lenore Victoria Davis for The New York Times); Cynthia Martinez, a 19-year-old who helped support her mother, was one of the victims.